Robin Summers (born August 3)

Robin began her writing career in high school, thanks to an insightful (and perhaps a tiny bit pushy) English teacher who, having decided that Robin was not living up to her potential, gave her extra, non-graded homework over her winter break: to read Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Helene Hanff's Q's Legacy. In those pages Robin discovered how far good writing and a vivid imagination could take a reader, and she has been writing ever since.

Robin's debut novel, After the Fall, is the winner of two 2012 Golden Crown Literary Society Awards, two 2011 Rainbow Awards for LGBT Fiction and Non-fiction, and a 2011 Lesbian Fiction Readers Choice Award.​

Robin is an Illinois native who works in public policy in Washington, DC. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

After the Fall won a 2011 Rainbow Award as Best Lesbian Contemporary Romance and Best Lesbian Debut.

Further Readings:

After the Fall by Robin Summers
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books (July 19, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602822344
ISBN-13: 978-1602822344
Amazon: After the Fall
Amazon Kindle: After the Fall

When the world ends, what’s left to care about?

Taylor Stone is no hero. She has three simple rules for life after the plague: Keep moving. Keep to yourself. Don’t get involved. The plague took a particular joy in killing the women of the world, making it that much harder for the few who survived. The only thing that matters since she escaped from a small farm outside of Pittsburgh is the truth waiting at the end of her journey home. The rest of the world, or what’s left of it, can go straight to Hell as far as she’s concerned.

When a group of survivors offers her food and shelter, she is more than happy to spend a few days, take what she needs, and get out, like she always does. But in a place called Burninghead Farm, despite all her rules and plans, Taylor finds a group of people who have more to offer than the basics of survival. Most of all, there is Kate, a woman who makes Taylor realize love is still alive and makes her dream of a future she thought was no longer possible. If only Taylor can find the courage to fight for it.

It turns out that the end of the world isn’t about the end of the world at all, but about what happens after.

More Rainbow Awards at my website: elisarolle.com, Rainbow Awards/2011

Dorothy "Dickie" Fellowes-Gordon & Elsa Maxwell

Elsa Maxwell’s most notable achievements were the extravagant parties she threw for her friends in the worlds of art, science, politics, royalty, and society. She also hosted Elsa Maxwell’s Party Line on national radio and wrote a widely read newspaper column. Her constant companion, lover, and friend of fifty years was socialite Dorothy Fellowes-Gordon, affectionately referred to as “Dickie.” Maxwell left her entire estate (which amounted to less than $10,000 after all those parties) to Dickie.

Elsa Maxwell (May 24, 1883 – November 1, 1963) was an American gossip columnist and author, songwriter, and professional hostess renowned for her parties for royalty and high society figures of her day.

Maxwell is credited with the introduction of the scavenger hunt and treasure hunt for use as party games in the modern era. She also appeared as herself in the films Stage Door Canteen (1943) and Rhapsody in Blue (1945), as well as co-starring in the 1939 film Hotel for Women, for which she wrote the screenplay.

Elsa Maxwell was born at a theater in Keokuk, Iowa, during a performance of the opera Mignon. She subsequently was raised in San Francisco, where her father sold insurance and did freelance writing for the New York Dramatic Mirror. She developed a gift for staging games and diversions at parties for the rich, and began making a living devising treasure-hunt parties, come-as-your-opposite parties and other sorts, including a scavenger hunt in Paris in 1927 that inadvertently created disturbances all over the city. Returning to the US, Maxwell worked on movie shorts during the Depression, unsuccessfully. Following World War II, however, she gained an audience of millions as a newspaper gossip columnist.


Elsa Maxwell interviewing Marilyn Monroe at Walford Astoria, NY
Elsa Maxwell’s most notable achievements were the extravagant parties she threw for her friends in the worlds of art, science, politics, royalty, and society. She also hosted Elsa Maxwell’s Party Line on national radio and wrote a widely read newspaper column. Her constant companion, lover, and friend of fifty years was socialite Dorothy Fellowes-Gordon, affectionately referred to as “Dickie.” Maxwell left her entire estate (which amounted to less than $10,000 after all those parties) to Dickie.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_Maxwell

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
Amazon: Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Matt Doyle & Ryan Steele

Matt Doyle (born May 13, 1987) is an stage and film actor living in New York City. He is perhaps best known for his works in Spring Awakening, War Horse and The Book of Mormon on Broadway and as Glenn Mangan / Juliet in 2011 Shakespeare film adaptation Private Romeo directed by Alan Brown. He has also been developing a singing career with live shows and two EPs Daylight (2011) and Constant (2012). Until their breakup in 2012, he dated Wesley Taylor (born August 13, 1986), an American stage actor and writer, probably best known for his roles in the Broadway musicals Rock of Ages and The Addams Family.

He dated fellow Broadway dancer and actor Ryan Steele for two years. Ryan Steele (born August 3, 1990) is an American dancer and actor. He has performed on Broadway and in other performances, as well as in film and television. He is best known for the role of Specs in the 2012 musical Newsies. "The theater community is a very small one, so I knew who Matt was—we’d worked with the same director in movies (Private Romeo for Matt and Five Dances for me) about a year apart, so that was our one-degree of separation. I’d seen pictures and found him so darn cute—he looks like a Disney prince—that I was crushing from afar. We were at a mutual friend’s birthday party and I walked in and I saw him from the other side of the bar. I gave him an awkward smile and a wave and continued ordering my drink. And then I realized I was being stupid and needed to go over. I felt so fumbly the entire time, but I knew I wanted to keep the conversation going with anything that came into my head. We went for a date in Hell’s Kitchen a week later."


Photography by Rob Howard
Matt Doyle is an stage and film actor living in New York City. He is perhaps best known for his works in Spring Awakening, War Horse and The Book of Mormon on Broadway and as Glenn Mangan / Juliet in 2011 Shakespeare film adaptation Private Romeo directed by Alan Brown. Ryan Steele is an American dancer and actor. He is best known for the role of Specs in the 2012 musical Newsies. Doyle and Steele dated for two years before amicably ending their romantic relationship.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Doyle_%28actor%29

Ryan Steele (born August 3, 1990) is an American dancer and actor. He has performed on Broadway and in other performances, as well as in film and television. He is best known for the role of Specs in the 2012 musical Newsies.

Steele was born and raised in Walled Lake, Michigan where he lived with his mother, his father and his brother and sister. The entire Steele family had taken dance classes; his mother in a 'moms dance class', his father in a 'dads dance class' along with both of his siblings. He started dancing at the age of five and instantly fell in love with it.

During elementary and high school he received training from of a number of dance programs, including The Juilliard School. In his last few years of high school, Steele was training intensively in Ballet, focusing on a career in concert dance. Steele did not attend university, opting to take a year off and try out for different dance companies. In that year he got a contract with a ballet company in Texas. That year Steele also attended an open call for the 2009 revival of West Side Story, thus was the beginning of his career.

Steele is openly gay and his family has always been supportive of his career and sexuality. He was in a relationship with fellow Broadway actor Matt Doyle. They dated for two years before amicably ending their romantic relationship.

After high school Steele opted to take the year off and try out for different dance companies. In that year he got a contract with a ballet company in Texas. That year Steele also attended an open call for the 2009 revival of West Side Story where he got the part, leading him to pursue the role of Baby John. Steele was with the cast from opening night on March 19, 2009 to closing night on January 2, 2011.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Steele_%28actor%29

( Further Readings )

More LGBT Couples at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

GRL: Jordan L. Hawk

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the GRL in San Diego, October 15-18, 2015, today author is Jordan L. Hawk: Jordan L. Hawk grew up in the wilds of North Carolina, where she was raised on stories of haints and mountain magic by her bootlegging granny and single mother. After using a silver knife in the light of a full moon to summon her true love, she turned her talents to spinning tales. She weaves together couples who need to fall in love, then throws in some evil sorcerers and undead just to make sure they want it bad enough. In Jordan’s world, love might conquer all, but it just as easily could end up in the grave.

Further Readings:

Dangerous Spirits by Jordan L. Hawk
Publication Date: September 15, 2015
Amazon Kindle: Dangerous Spirits

Book 2 in the Spirits Series
Previous Book: Restless Spirits

After the events of Reyhome Castle, Henry Strauss expected the Psychical Society to embrace his application of science to the study of hauntings. Instead, the society humiliates and blacklists him. His confidence shaken, he can’t bring himself to admit the truth to his lover, the handsome medium Vincent Night.

Vincent’s new life in Baltimore with Henry is disrupted when a friend from the past asks for help with a haunting. In the remote town of Devil’s Walk, old ties and new lies threaten to tear the lovers apart, if a fiery spirit bent on vengeance doesn’t put an end to them first.

2015 Rainbow Awards Submission: The Interpretation of Love and the Truth by Barbara Winkes

The Interpretation of Love and the Truth by Barbara Winkes
Lesbian Contemporary Romance
Paperback: 146 pages
Publisher: Eternal Press (December 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1629291889
ISBN-13: 978-1629291888
Amazon: The Interpretation of Love and the Truth
Amazon Kindle: The Interpretation of Love and the Truth

Sometimes, the best laid plans are not. Chelsea and Gail are engaged to get married. Their relationship is safe, comfortable, and without conflict. According to Tonya Gray, it also lacks the passion one should feel for the person you commit to for the rest of your life. Chelsea may not trust her because Tonya broke her heart three years ago. As the date nears, Chelsea has to figure out if love means what she has with her fiancée, or what she could have with the woman she cannot forget.

2015 Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2015.html